Forbes, Malcolm

Forbes, Malcolm, 1919–90, American publisher, b. Englewood, N.J. The third son of a Scottish immigrant who founded Forbes magazine in 1917, he graduated from Princeton (1941), and became publisher of the magazine on his father's death (1954). Under his leadership, the publication became one of America's most successful business magazines, with a circulation of 735,000. Forbes ran unsuccessfully for governor of New Jersey (1957) and used his magazine and numerous books to praise the virtues of laissez-faire capitalism. He was worth at least $400 million at his death.

See A. Jones, Malcolm Forbes (1977); C. Winans, The Man Who Had Everything (1990).

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